Shedding light on the 136-year journey leading to the landmark Supreme Court decision that overturned anti-sodomy laws across the United States in 2003, the award-winning book, “Before Lawrence v. Texas: The Making of a Queer Social Movement” traces the history of the queer social movement in Texas and the dedicated individuals who played pivotal roles in advocating for LGBTQ+ rights. Its origin can be traced back to author Wesley Phelps’ time at Rice University, during which the 2010 graduate started research on his first book, “A People's War on Poverty: Urban Politics and Grassroots Activists in Houston.”
“I came across this story from 1985 when former mayor Louie Welch had come back to run for mayor again,” said Phelps, now an associate professor of history at the University of North Texas, where he specializes in the history of the United States South in the 20th century. “He had this hot mic moment before he was going to be broadcast on the local news. Somebody asked him about his four-point program to end the AIDS crisis in Houston. He said his first point would be to shoot all the queers. I knew at the time I had to kind of put a pin in that. I didn’t have time to look into that then.”
After earning both his doctorate from Rice’s history department and a graduate certificate in the study of women, gender and sexuality, then releasing his first book in 2014, Phelps revisited the story while beginning to explore the rise in LGBTQ activism during the 1980s in Houston.
“I always had this question: Why was it in the early to mid ’80s that activists in Houston thought that a nondiscrimination ordinance was possible? What made them think they could get something through then?” Phelps said. “I discovered that the sodomy law had been declared unconstitutional in 1982. It was then reinstated in 1985, but there was this three-year window, and I just thought there has to be something to that.”
Instead, conversations with queer leaders, including former Houston mayor Annise Parker, illuminated the years of organization and activism that ultimately led to the landmark Lawrence v. Texas ruling. Phelps unveils the untold stories of activists who, for decades, challenged discriminatory laws in Texas. The 2003 Supreme Court ruling, which protected private consensual sex between adults, was not an overnight development but the result of years of tireless work and organizing. In “Before Lawrence v. Texas,” Phelps details the achievements, setbacks and unexpected alliances formed along the way, providing readers with a vivid picture of the passionate struggle against Texas' discriminatory laws.
“I think most people do think that Lawrence v. Texas came out of nowhere, that it was just kind of happenstance that these two guys got arrested and ended up overturning the sodomy law,” Phelps said. “But activists were fighting for decades for this. It would not have been possible had this legal groundwork not been laid by decades of activism before that.”
The heart of Phelps’ narrative lies in the personal experiences of gay and lesbian Texans as well as their allies, who contributed to the legal strategy that eventually led to the overturning of the state’s sodomy laws. Despite facing significant risks, these individuals launched political campaigns and legal challenges that laid the groundwork for the Lawrence v. Texas decision. That’s something Phelps emphasizes when speaking about the book, most recently at the Rice Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality’s Graduate Colloquium Public Lecture, during which Phelps was honored with the Distinguished Alum Award.
“In this case, it took old-fashioned organizing, mobilizing, learning how the judicial system worked, learning how to file federal court cases, learning how to interpret the Constitution, learning how to put together a legal team to do this, learning how to put together a PR campaign to go with it, learning how to travel the state to educate people about why the sodomy law was so harmful for queer people,” Phelps said. “I want people to know that if we want to keep the victories and if we want to bring about new ones, that’s the kind of work that it’s going to take.”
Learn more about “Before Lawrence v. Texas,” awarded the 2024 Tullis Memorial Prize for the best Texas history book, here.